Catching Dory: selling aquarium fish supports coastal livelihoods in Indonesia

Abstract The global marine aquarium trade has created new local markets across the planet, including in Indonesia, now the second-largest exporting country of marine aquarium fish in the world. Participating in the global aquarium trade has been touted as a potentially sustainable addition to fisher livelihoods, but scant data exist showing the numbers of fish coming off the reef and how those fish contribute to income. To determine how participants in the trade incorporate aquarium species in their livelihoods, we examine source-level aquarium fish collecting and trading data in the Banggai Archipelago, a region in Central Sulawesi that has become a significant source for popular aquarium, also known as ornamental, fish species. Using a sustainable livelihoods lens, we examine this data to understand how participants in the aquarium trade both contribute to as well as benefit from the trade and consider how their participation relates to emerging Blue Justice principles. From one year of buying and selling data at the fisher, intermediary buyer, and regional trader levels, we show that catching and selling fish for the aquarium trade represents an average of nearly 20% of their gross annual income and provides added diversity and flexibility to fisher and trader livelihoods in the region, especially during seasons of rough weather. We suggest that managers of an impending marine protected area in the region would do well to consider how to sustain these livelihood benefits.